Welcome to another installment in the Future Proof Docs series. As a reminder, this is a series of posts highlighting physicians who excel at something outside of medicine and care enough to share their passions with us. Today I want to introduce Passive Income MD - an anesthesiologist who enjoys blogging about the best type of income - passive. I hope you will enjoy this Q&A.

Introduction:

I’m Passive Income M.D., an anesthesiologist living on the West Coast. My goal since finishing training has been to develop enough sources of passive income to be financially free from working in medicine. I really enjoy what I do, but I value freedom the most and love having the option to spend more time with family and friends. I’m willing to try most anything and I try to share it all on my blog while also letting you in on my journey to achieve financial freedom.In fact, I've recently announced that I'm financially free from medicine. Does that mean I'm quitting? Well, you'll have to read on to find out.

[FPMD: Passive Income MD has been a friend of the blog since as long as I can remember and we recently got to meet up in person at FinCon 2017. It was great time.]

When and why did you decide to become a physician?

At a young age, my father, a surgeon, put up tons of medical posters on my wall. It was his hope that I would somehow follow in his footsteps. His plan somewhat worked. I didn’t quite make it all the way to that side of the surgical drape but I did make it into the OR at least.

I briefly flirted with going into something finance or business-related while in college but something kept drawing me back to medicine.

[FPMD: Consideration of another career seems to be quite common among Future Proof Docs guests. Perhaps that's the reason they created their online outlets?]

Why your specialty?

I honestly enjoyed a lot of different specialties during my rotations in medical school. I could see myself as a surgeon, OB/GYN, pediatrician, etc. Then I found this group of doctors that seemed to have the best balance between career satisfaction, family, and just life overall – the anesthesiologists. So I decided to follow that path, and I haven’t regretted it since.

[FPMD: ROADS to riches indeed! I must admit I never knew what an anesthesiologist did until very late in medical school. But now I thank my anesthesiology colleagues every day for keeping my patients comfortable and still on the angio table.]

When and why did you start your blog?

I started the blog at the end of last summer. I was working full-time, running a few side businesses, recently had a second child (3 months old), and so yes, it wasn’t the smartest time to take on any new ventures. However, I’ve realized in life, there is almost never a perfect time for anything, so if you’re waiting for that moment to arrive before you take any chances or pursue your passions, you’ll never actually get started.

Well, around that time I had friends, mostly doctors, asking me what I was up to with my real estate investments and other ventures, and they joked that if I had a blog, they would read it. So I thought, “what the heck, I’ll try” and here I am.

The feedback I’ve gotten has been amazing. I think there are so many physicians out there who deep down enjoy medicine but those feelings have gotten buried by today’s financial pressures and regulatory changes in the field. Once people feel trapped doing anything, all the joy gets sucked out it. I feel I’ve found a way out - remove some of the financial pressures and I’m free to enjoy medicine on my own terms.

[FPMD: I thought we were suppose to leave the life lessons part until later in this article?! Can't agree more - "in life, there is almost never a perfect time for anything." Do you have a passion for something outside of medicine? Perhaps you should follow PIMD's lead.]

What is the biggest challenge running your blog while being a doc at the same time? How do you deal with it?

Well, obviously the biggest challenge is the amount of time it takes to write, run, and promote the blog. Besides that though, some of the technical challenges have gotten in my way. I like to think I’m relatively tech-savvy, but when my website started having issues, I was a bit lost. It was definitely frustrating trying to fix it and still juggle everything else. Well, I’m glad that’s done with and hope to have smoother sailing from here on out.

What are the top 3 life lessons you have for FPMD readers?

"You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take." – Wayne Gretzky. One of my favorite quotes of all time and one I try to live by. I think if there’s an idea that keeps popping into your head, you owe it to yourself to pursue it, otherwise you’ll never know how it could’ve turned out.

Don’t wait to enjoy life and spend more time with loved ones. It’s definitely a balance but I think you should figure out how to do those things now while everyone still has their health. Nothing’s guaranteed later. That’s why I’m all for gradual retirement, which means that I’m not waiting to retire when I’m 65. I’m starting to retire slowly today, shift by shift, as my passive income streams continue to grow.

Did I say that I’m a fan of passive income? Create multiple sources of income and so when one dries up or changes, you can rely on the others. By diversifying, ultimately life is a lot less stressful and who likes stress? Not me.

[FPMD: I'm on board with all 3. Unfortunately, I've found that people are great at talking themselves out of taking shots, myself included...]

Give me 3 blog posts that FPMD readers can visit to get the “core” of what you stand for.

Dr. Bo Liu is an aspiring radiologist-in-training and the founder and editor of the White Coat Money Blog. He has an interest in interventional radiology and helping his medical colleagues get ahead in this mad world of medicine and money. When he's not crushing the list at the PACS station or typing up your next favorite blog post, you can usually find him at the local badminton club, movie theater or the most recently opened restaurant.

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